Apple is looking to improve discoverability in its App Store.

The first major update to Apple's App Store may be coming alongside the fall release of iOS 6. A revamped interface, including app discoverability features acquired from Chomp earlier this year, began appearing for developers testing betas of iOS 6 on Friday, as noted by AppleInsider.

The changes mainly center on the search functionality of the App Store, which has received some criticism for being frustrating to navigate. Discovering apps that aren't highlighted on top selling lists or featured on the App Store's main page can be difficult with over 600,000 apps to choose from. Apple acquired app discoverability service Chomp earlier this year, ostensibly to help fix the problem.

The new search uses a "card"-like interface—similar to Pinterest, in our eyes—instead of a scrolling list. The cards show an app's name, icon, rating, and sample screenshot. Tapping a card brings up a pop-over detail view, which includes the app description, reviews, and more screen shots. Users can also see a selection of "related" apps, which likely uses algorithms developed by Chomp.

One thing to keep in mind is that the design and functionality of the redesigned App Store appear to be in flux. It's likely that Apple will work to refine the store between now and when iOS ships, presumably around September 12.

Oh wait... could that have been Apple's plan all along? Replacing Websites with Apps and Google with a universal app-focused search? Completely side-stepping Google's entire platform and business?

Apple's main goal isn't that difficult to deduce... they want to own as much of the tech sector as possible.

Oh, in case you're wondering.... that kind of strategy isn't considered monopolistic unless they remove the web browser from iOS. All they have to do is make it so that people won't bother with the "raw web" anymore (since it's so "clunky" compared to just using Apps) and they'll isolate their users while killing Google's search and ad business. No more "raw web", no more need for Google.

Oh wait... could that have been Apple's plan all along? Replacing Websites with Apps and Google with a universal app-focused search? Completely side-stepping Google's entire platform and business?

Apple's main goal isn't that difficult to deduce... they want to own as much of the tech sector as possible.

I sure will miss playing Zombies and Eggplants in Flash if this goes to its logical conclusion, that users abandon perfectly wonderful web apps just because it's cool to find & download 99¢ apps. What a step backwards for the user!

Oh wait... could that have been Apple's plan all along? Replacing Websites with Apps and Google with a universal app-focused search?

Well, certainly not *all* along. When the iPhone was first introduced, Apple's plan was to have developers implement their software as HTML+JS web apps and run them in Safari. When developers grabbed their torches and pitchforks, demanding native app development, Apple quickly adjusted course, released an SDK, and created the app store.

As long as searching an app by its name actually finds that app, that would be an improvement. But, given how common that complaint is and how easy it would be to implement, I doubt any of this has to do with ease of use. Rather, it is to force searches into results that can be more effectively monetized.

Oh wait... could that have been Apple's plan all along? Replacing Websites with Apps and Google with a universal app-focused search? Completely side-stepping Google's entire platform and business?

You forgot using Siri for ad-free searches, as well.

Honest question here: how much does Siri depend on Google for search results? I know it uses Wolfram-Alpha for some of it, but what about other search results? Is there any chance that Google could go "tit-for-tat" and block Siri-generated queries?

I guess the screenshot is a bit of an improvement over the current system, but I don't know that it's going to improve "discoverability" all that much since it doesn't look like the list of items returned by a search has changed. How about allowing developers to include tags/keywords that are searchable? How about showing a one-sentence description of the app along with the title so that developers don't have to try to cram the app's description in the title? Those would be significant improvements.

Oh wait... could that have been Apple's plan all along? Replacing Websites with Apps and Google with a universal app-focused search? Completely side-stepping Google's entire platform and business?

You forgot using Siri for ad-free searches, as well.

Honest question here: how much does Siri depend on Google for search results? I know it uses Wolfram-Alpha for some of it, but what about other search results? Is there any chance that Google could go "tit-for-tat" and block Siri-generated queries?

Siri doesn't use Google for answering queries. Any that she refers to searching the web uses the standard default - so Bing if you like.

I like how Apple doesn't choose to directly compete with existing businesses, not for big things anyway. Search engine is done, there's not much that can be improved except a better diversity of choices. But by emphasising apps as a web experience, and by offering answers to questions through Siri, they are indirectly competing with search in a very real way. Microsoft just did an Android and made a sloppy version of the incumbent.

Honest question here: how much does Siri depend on Google for search results? I know it uses Wolfram-Alpha for some of it, but what about other search results? Is there any chance that Google could go "tit-for-tat" and block Siri-generated queries?

It uses whatever you've configured in Safari for searching the web, and non-google sources for pretty much everything else.

Google is the default in Safari, but not the only option - and Google is paying Apple to use their search engine (just like they do with firefox). I'm sure if that agreement fell apart, it wouldn't be a big deal. Perhaps if Apple and Microsoft teamed up, Bing would turn into a serious competitor. Or maybe Apple could throw 50 billion dollars at duck duck go.

This is an article about the app store. Why is every one discussing web search?

Because kinda the point of the article is that "discoverability" in the current app store is so bad that it's difficult to find anything. (And hence Apple is trying to improve it.) The consequence is that the current answer to "Is there an app for that?" for the people commenting is typically found via a web search instead.

Is there any hope for the Mac App Store to see an improvement? Finding apps there isn't a whole lot easier and navigation is stupid. I was browsing the store and was on page 11 of productivity apps. When I chose an app to learn more about and tried to go back it took me back to page one. Very retarded.

Full-text indexing and a tag cloud should be used to provide a sophisticated filter, narrowing the options a customer has to browse through. No point showing Applications your hardware is too puny to run either...

Oh wait... could that have been Apple's plan all along? Replacing Websites with Apps and Google with a universal app-focused search? Completely side-stepping Google's entire platform and business?

You forgot using Siri for ad-free searches, as well.

Honest question here: how much does Siri depend on Google for search results? I know it uses Wolfram-Alpha for some of it, but what about other search results? Is there any chance that Google could go "tit-for-tat" and block Siri-generated queries?

Methinks about half of the search questions end up in Google. That will be slimmed down in iOS6, which adds many more knowledge-domain agents (e.g., baseball) to Siri. Although the original “Oh wait…” comment treats it as a bad thing, I think he's right, and Apple intends to put a better tool towards any major customer need, if they can see a way to. It doesn't work from the command line? I'm OK with that.

I prefer Google's search, myself, but at work it's easier to use Bing and it gets the job done. Were Google to cut off Apple, Google would be cutting off its nose to spite its face. More broadly, Google and Apple both expect to be major players in the tech industry for many years and it's crazy for them to waste all their energies firing missiles at one another. Much better to compete with clear boundaries of where you protect your domain by offering customers superior capabilities.

Oh wait... could that have been Apple's plan all along? Replacing Websites with Apps and Google with a universal app-focused search? Completely side-stepping Google's entire platform and business?

You forgot using Siri for ad-free searches, as well.

Honest question here: how much does Siri depend on Google for search results? I know it uses Wolfram-Alpha for some of it, but what about other search results? Is there any chance that Google could go "tit-for-tat" and block Siri-generated queries?

Methinks about half of the search questions end up in Google. That will be slimmed down in iOS6, which adds many more knowledge-domain agents (e.g., baseball) to Siri. Although the original “Oh wait…” comment treats it as a bad thing, I think he's right, and Apple intends to put a better tool towards any major customer need, if they can see a way to. It doesn't work from the command line? I'm OK with that.

I prefer Google's search, myself, but at work it's easier to use Bing and it gets the job done. Were Google to cut off Apple, Google would be cutting off its nose to spite its face. More broadly, Google and Apple both expect to be major players in the tech industry for many years and it's crazy for them to waste all their energies firing missiles at one another. Much better to compete with clear boundaries of where you protect your domain by offering customers superior capabilities.

Honest question here: how much does Siri depend on Google for search results? I know it uses Wolfram-Alpha for some of it, but what about other search results? Is there any chance that Google could go "tit-for-tat" and block Siri-generated queries?

It uses whatever you've configured in Safari for searching the web, and non-google sources for pretty much everything else.

Google is the default in Safari, but not the only option - and Google is paying Apple to use their search engine (just like they do with firefox). I'm sure if that agreement fell apart, it wouldn't be a big deal. Perhaps if Apple and Microsoft teamed up, Bing would turn into a serious competitor. Or maybe Apple could throw 50 billion dollars at duck duck go.